my reaction at meeting held in 1996 when someone came out to Bosnia Herzegovina just make a name for themselves and collect a medal, and in order to do so came up with a ridiculous order.
1996, Šipovo not far from Jajce where we were based in Bosnia Herzegovina, my boss Iain (the Rock) Willkie and I attended a meeting to discuss various matters but one in particular related directly to our job and would have an impact on our men.
It was put forward at the meeting that all our vehicles should be marked up correctly according to ADR regulation’s for the transportation of hazardous materials across Europe, such as fuel. I found this decision making quite unbelievable they continued to inform us that the Royal Military Police would carry out spot checks, and any driver found not adhering to the regulations would be fined.
Well of course there were a few questions that needed answering, but first why were they introducing this rule when Bosnia was no longer part of the former Yugoslavia which had signed up to ADR and why did they want to fine our guys when we were the only ones driving on the roads at that time.
As if our men did not have enough to do...
Then it was our turn to speak, the Rock put his hands behind his head and as he leaned back in his chair, he said to me go for it Chiwawa (yes that was my nick name as opposed to the Rottweiler which was Iain’s nickname or just simply the Rock). I put forward the following questions.
1. Has Bosnia and Herzegovina declared that they will uphold the ADR regulations?
2. Do the RMP's have qualified ADR supervisors among their ranks?
3. When will this rule come into effect?
Answers Respectfully:
1. No
2. Not sure
3. Effective as of midnight tonight (the day of the meeting)
My Response:
1. Why are we enforcing a rule when we are the only ones on the road?
2. If an RMP stops any of my vehicles I will want to see his authority regarding ADR as I believe they are not qualified to carry out the correct checks.
3. Most important of all, the people who thought up this stupid plan missed one very important point. My regiment was already within the rules as we were based in Germany we were already fully complying with Europe regulations and our men were very well trained and they were very good at doing their jobs under extreme conditions.
However, I pointed out to the unit enforcing this rule that as of midnight all their vehicles would be off the road. Why, because they were a UK based unit and as such were marked up under UK regulations and therefore would have fallen foul of this new rule which of course was of their own making.
They would not have had time to replace all the vehicle markings and therefore would have to fine all their own drivers for being in breach of their rules; either that or they don't move their vehicles.
Not a good plan, because they would not have been able to refuel the out laying units, which would have meant that they could not do their job.
All in all I think this would have been very embarrassing, and good coverage for the media.
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